If it’s not an elaborate hoax, the explanation lies in science.
Recent video of what appears to be a floating city over Jiangxi, China, has taken the Internet by storm.
There only appears to be the single video, so that in itself makes the “sighting” questionable. But let’s make this a teachable moment.
There are the conspiracy theorists who believe it is a rip in space, aliens or the U.S. government. The typical stuff.
However, the likely culprit is a rare, but very cool type of mirage called fata morgana.
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We all know about mirages that appear beneath us, but it’s unlikely you’ve heard of mirages that appear above you.
Close to the ground is a layer of cold air. Above that is warmer air. Sunlight passes through those layers, but not necessarily in a straight line. When light bends, it’s called refraction. The angle at which it bends depends on the density between the two layers of air.
Our brains don’t account for the refraction and just assume that the light came to us in a straight line. So with fata morgana, light from the distant object bends downward, but our brains think, “Hey, that ship/city/building came from over there!” and place the object where it would be if the light had come in a straight line — above us. This is called a superior mirage.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first occurrence of a city appearing out of nowhere.
On Aug. 18, 1894, residents of Buffalo, New York, looked out and saw Toronto — some 90 km away — right in front of them. And this wasn’t the first time, though it was witnessed by at least 20,000 people.
That’s likely the case with the floating city. No aliens. No government trying to take over the world.
We’re pretty sure.
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